JHK & Duncan at Union College Humanities Seminar

James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary record a podcast before a live student audience at Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y. As part of a Humanities Super Seminar on liberal arts and activism, the students read The KunstlerCast book. In this segment, students ask questions out the future of the Internet, concentrating poverty and wealth in New York City and how individuals can face the enormous issue of rearranging how we live in our human habitat.

“The Heirloom,” by Richard Davies, explores a post peak world where a group of Native Americans comes to terms with a dangerous and chaotic world. Guy McPherson, of Nature Bats Last, says, “Ultimately, The Heirloom is a wide-ranging tale about the human experience. It is about life, love, death, honor, and people struggling to make their way in a world not of their choosing.”

Light Pollution, the Printed Page v. the Screen & More

JHK fields listeners calls about the healthcare industry and its future in the Long Emergency, the validity of peak oil, cognitive ability to retain information from a computer screen vs. the printed page, and light pollution.

“The Heirloom,” by Richard Davies, explores a post peak world where a group of Native Americans comes to terms with a dangerous and chaotic world. Guy McPherson, of Nature Bats Last, says, “Ultimately, The Heirloom is a wide-ranging tale about the human experience. It is about life, love, death, honor, and people struggling to make their way in a world not of their choosing.”

ANNOUNCEMENT: The 200th episode of The KunstlerCast is coming up. Call the listener line and share your favorite moment from the kast.

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“The Heirloom,” by Richard Davies, explores a post peak world where a group of Native Americans comes to terms with a dangerous and chaotic world. Guy McPherson, of Nature Bats Last, says, “Ultimately, The Heirloom is a wide-ranging tale about the human experience. It is about life, love, death, honor, and people struggling to make their way in a world not of their choosing.”

Fantasies About Our Oil Dependency

James Howard Kunstler believes Americans and their leaders are lying to themselves about our current energy predicament. There is a tremendous body of fantasy about how much energy Americans can harvest from shale gas, shale oil, tar sands, running the American truck fleet on natural gas and other forms of alternative fuel for motoring. There is even one fantasy that an endless supply of abiotic oil is located in the earth’s core. Kunstler runs down the list and gives us the score.

The Internet as our Third Place

James Howard Kunstler believes that the virtual is not an adequate replacement for the authentic. In spite of how appealing and ingenious we may find virtual life, it is not as good as real life. Kunstler calls the Internet “the world’s most amazing distraction from reality that has ever been invented” and he notes that it appeared just at a time when we are in desperate need to attend to the major troubles facing our society. Online spaces now serve as our “third place,” but that often occurs at the expense of our tangible public realm. Kunstler says the sense of place in the U.S. was severely damaged well before the Internet came along, but he wonders if there is a link between our impoverished public realm and our increasing desire to inhabit the Internet landscape. Other areas of discussion include: the Internet as “green,” the enterprise of “infotainment” and the effects of digital communication on human interaction.

Support for this program comes from the Congress for the New Urbanism, the nation’s leading forum dedicated to advancing urbanism and promoting alternatives to sprawl. CNU’s 18th annual Congress,”New Urbanism: Prescription for Healthy Places” will be held in Atlanta, May 19 – 22, organized with help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It will feature 90 plus sessions, tours, and immersive experiences with world’s leading thinkers and builders of good urbanism, and prominent researchers into the health impacts of how places are built, including the CDC’s Dr. Howard Frumkin, co-author of “Urban Sprawl and Public Health.” Register today, at: www.cnu18.org

An Exercise in Techno-grandiosity?

As NASA prepares to retire its space shuttle program, James Howard Kunstler takes a few moments to muse on the past, present and future of space exploration. Personally, JHK is glad that our government is cutting funding for space exploration. He’s not sure what the 20th Century fiesta of technology accomplished anyway. On the topic of space colonization, Kunstler says he fears that humans will make the rest of the universe as bad as Hackensack, New Jersey. He also touches upon the issues of resource exploitation, offloading surplus population, and the wishful thinking that lies behind the space exploration narrative.

Support for this program comes from the Congress for the New Urbanism, the nation’s leading forum dedicated to advancing urbanism and promoting alternatives to sprawl. CNU’s 18th annual Congress,”New Urbanism: Prescription for Healthy Places” will be held in Atlanta, May 19 – 22, organized with help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It will feature 90 plus sessions, tours, and immersive experiences with world’s leading thinkers and builders of good urbanism, and prominent researchers into the health impacts of how places are built, including the CDC’s Dr. Howard Frumkin, co-author of “Urban Sprawl and Public Health.” Register today, at: www.cnu18.org

The Quest For An Electric Vehicle Nirvana

James Howard Kunstler explores the possibility of transitioning our society from fossil fuels to one that runs on electricity. This discussion is based on ideas presented in an episode of NOVA titled “Car of the Future” (Season 33, Episode 3). You can watch the entire NOVA program below.

Arizona after cheap oil + alternative fuel fantasies

A listener from Flagstaff, Ariz. wants to know what fate awaits his town in the post oil future. The verdict from Jim? At least it’s not Phoenix, but most of Flagstaff looks like the service road around Newark Airport. The caller also asks about the new Honda hydrogen fuel cell car, which reminds Jim to bash so-called environmentalist Amory Lovins’ fantasy to keep the motoring scene going at all costs.